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State Rep. Rooster Cogburn Marty Flynn of Scranton found himself in the news this week after exchanging gunfire in the streets of Laredo Harrisburg with a would-be armed robber. No one was hurt that we know of, the alleged bad guys (four boys aged 15 to 17) were rounded up, and Flynn was generally praised for his quick trigger finger. Only in America is a shootout on a public street not viewed collectively as a “bad thing.”

And while we’re on the subject: Our state legislature — the nation’s most-expensive and second-largest — continues to essentially plunder the state coffers to fund its lavish array of salaries, offices, employees, perks, tax-exempt per diems and pensions. Taxpayers might be justified in asking, “where’s our gun, guys?”
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Former Reagan White House Press Secretary James Brady has passed away. Brady, who suffered crippling brain damage after being shot during an attempt on Reagan’s life by a mentally ill man, went on to devote the remainder of his days to reforming the U.S.’s gun laws. His most notable success came with the passage of the Brady Bill, which instituted requirements for background checks for prospective gun buyers.

But as to whether the country become a safer and saner place regarding guns since then? Color me cynical.
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A jolly group of gun nuts calling itself “Open Carry Texas” decided to exercise its Second Amendment rights by dining at a Dallas area Chipotle Mexican Grill with military-style assault rifles slung over their shoulders. Needless to say, this caused a high degree of uneasiness among non-gun carrying customers and the Chipotle managers.

In a surprising spasm of reasonableness, the National Rifle Association sided with Chipotle’s request that folks leave their guns at home or in their cars. In fact, the NRA went so far as to describe Open Carry Texas’ protest as “weird” and “scary.”

Of course, it has to be noted that firearms-obsessed outfits like this are themselves creations of the NRA’s long-standing and unbending opposition to any and all gun-control measures. Further, after the wholesale slaughter at places like Aurora, Col., and Newtown, Conn., this is what offends the NRA’s sense of propriety?
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A Maryland gun shop owner decided not to sell the so-called “smart gun” after receiving death threats from, er … Second-Amendment patriots and the NRA who, through their paranoid worldview of government and law enforcement, believe Armatix’s technology somehow threatens their constitutional rights and very freedom.

Yeah, I don’t get it, either. Then again, a lot of the gun lobby’s dystopian arguments don’t make much sense to me. So let’s just for the moment savor the irony: The NRA and its extremist goons have defended their Second-Amendment rights by limiting the Second-Amendment rights of other Americans to purchase a handgun.
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I originally set out to draw a cartoon lampooning Georgia’s new guns-everywhere-and-all-the-time law – which is drawing support from really smart people so you know it’s a great idea — but wound up with this. I don’t have a problem with guns so long as there’s some form of reasonable regulation regarding their sale and ownership. Our national fetish regarding them is another matter entirely.
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I’ve almost given up arguing with the NRA and its extremist ideology regarding the Second Amendment. To hear people like NRA executive director Wayne Lapierre tell it, even the mildest forms of handgun regulation simply represent the first steps down the road to totalitarianism. In the process of feeding paranoid visions of a government bent on enslaving its citizens and serving the financial interests of the firearms and ammunition industry, the NRA has created a political juggernaut that broaches no compromise.